World Monuments Fund (WMF) invites nominations for the 2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize, which will be awarded this fall to a design professional or firm in recognition of innovative design solutions that preserved or saved a modern landmark at risk. The biennial prize was established to raise public awareness of the contribution modernism makes to contemporary life, the important place modernism holds in the architectural record, and the influential role that architects and designers play in preserving modern heritage.
Projects that enhanced a site’s architectural, functional, economic, and environmental sustainability while also benefiting the community are encouraged. Nominated projects must have been completed in the last five years.
Following World War II, the United States and Europe sought to address the dire need for public and affordable housing through new building. The decades after war saw the development of many innovative design, construction and social arrangements. This legacy represents an important part of our collective architectural and cultural heritage but its preservation is plagued by many practical and social issues. By bringing together American and International experts, the Fitch Colloquium seeks to create a dialogue about the preservation of these buildings, which are at the intersection of social, physical, cultural and architectural values.
The Save Prentice Coalition wants you to Show Prentice Some Love this Valentine’s Day! Enter the on-line contest to let the world know how much you love Bertrand Goldberg’s 1975 Prentice Women’s Hospital. Your “valentine” to Prentice can take any form you like: photos, drawings, t-shirt graphics, songs, 60-second videos, haiku, tattoos, and construction paper hearts are all welcome. Entries are due by 5 pm on Monday, February 13th. The top 5 entries will be posted at www.saveprentice.org on Valentine’s Day for a public vote. The winners of the popular vote will receive fabulous and rare Goldberg-themed prizes.
Join Docomomo US and openhousenewyorkfor a scavenger hunt across Manhattan and beyond. Spend a day exploring the city and taking photographs in front of examples of modern architecture and design for a chance to win great prizes! Hunt alone or as a team and learn about the historical buildings, spaces and the architects and designers that made major contributions to the cityscape. The hunt starting point and event opening will take place at Room & Board in SoHo at 11:00am.
Docomomo US and World Monuments Fund invite you to a presentation entitled, Materials and Surfaces of the Tugendhat House: Investigation and Preservation of Authenticity.
By DR. IVO HAMMER, conservator, art historian, chairman of the Tugendhat House International Committee.
Monday, January 23, 2012
6:00P.M.
RECEPTION TO FOLLOW
hosted by
Czech Center New York at Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street
between First and Second Avenues
Registration is now open for the upcoming Hawaii Modernism Symposium. Join Historic Hawai‘i Foundation for presentations, discussion and celebration of Hawaii’s significant architecture, planning and engineering achievements from the middle of the 20th century. The event entitled: “Hawai‘i Modernism: a Symposium on Identification, Evaluation and Preservation of Our Recent Past” will be held Saturday, January 21, 2012, 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the East West Center in Honolulu.
New Orleans architect Arthur Q. Davis passed away on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center. A graduate of Tulane University's School of Architecture and a World War II veteran, Davis studied with Walter Gropius and apprenticed in Eero Saarinen's Michigan office.
As interest in architecture of the twentieth century grows, Docomomo US continues to be at the forefront of the modern architecture preservation movement. For almost two decades, Docomomo US has been the resource for the advancement of public understanding of modern architecture and landscape and the promotion of advocacy on its behalf.
On a busy stretch of midtown Manhattan, a somewhat unknown and unloved modern building has quietly been demolished. The Donnell Library (1955), a modest piece of design nestled among the likes of Philip Johnson, Edward Durell Stone and Yoshio Taniguchi, stood on the south side of West 53rd Street and was designed by Edgar I. Williams and Aymar Embury II. One would not generally use the term ‘handsome’ or ‘elegant’ to describe the Donnell library, especially when comparing it to its high profile neighbors, but the library’s architecture was a unique hybrid, a sort of transitional form of modernism.
DOCOMOMO Ukraine in association with Kharkov National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, “RodDom” Institute and DOCOMOMO International request papers in association with the International Conference on Ukrainian Architectural Avant-Garde - Studies and Protection, Kharkov, February 1-3, 2012.
The aim of the conference is to concentrate efforts of architects, scientists, cultural community, state and local authorities of the Ukraine on the studies and protection, of the remaining architectural heritage, and of the turbulent twentieth century.
The program will include plenary sessions, presentations and tours on
On Tuesday, November 15th, join Docomomo US/NY Tri-State for an evening with Hicks Stone as he presents his new book, Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary Architect(Rizzoli). Hicks Stone, Edward Durell Stone's youngest son, himself a practicing architect, documents the breadth of his father's life and career. A unique and at times honest depiction of his father, Hicks presents an authoritative biography of one of the most controversial figures of twentieth-century architecture.
Docomomo US/North Texas in partnership with Dallas Architecture Forum will host the award-winning film, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History on Tuesday, November 8th at the Dallas Center for Architecture.
While the images of the 1972 demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project have become an iconographic visual shorthand for the failure of modern architecture, the reality is much more complex, involving wide-spread failures of our society, government, economy, and culture.
Congratulations to Connie Chau, Andrew Spina, Karen Liu, Nancy Tsai (photographer) of teamcoopers! They were the grand prize winners in the first annual Docomomo US Modern Architecture Scavenger Hunt. Completing ten of the contest items, teamcoopers earned 51 points and visited a number of buildings during Open House New York including Frank Lloyd Wright's 1954 Hoffman Auto Showroom (now Mercedes-Benz Manhattan) on Park Avenue. By winning our grand prize, they have won a personal tour by Docomomo US President Theodore Prudon as well as Docomomo US Moleskine notebooks and other fun prizes. Congratulations teamcoopers!
The World Monuments Fund has named three modern properties in the United States to its 2012 World Monuments Watch list. Manufacturers Trust Company Building designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was included on the list as was the Orange County Government Center by Paul Rudolph and Russel Wright's Manitoga in Garrison, New York. Since 1996, the biennial Watch has drawn international attention to cultural-heritage sites in need of assistance, helping to save some of the world’s most treasured places. The 2012 Watch includes 67 sites, representing 41 countries and territories.
Architecture buffs get your sneakers on and get ready to discover modern architecture across all five boroughs. Docomomo US is thrilled to launch our first annual Modern Architecture Scavenger Hunt during the Open House New York weekend. Grab your friends and a camera, and photograph yourself in front of modern architecture for a chance to win great prizes.
Abstracts are invited for the sessions and round tables at the Second International Meeting of the EAHN (Brussels, 31 May – 3 June 2012). The European Architectural History Network supports research and education by providing a public forum for the dissemination of knowledge about the histories of architecture. Based in Europe, it serves architectural historians and scholars in allied fields without restriction on their areas of study.
Proposals are due September 30. For more info on the conference visit: www.eahn2012.org
Movement to demolish the Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, NY (1963) has rapidly progressed since last month’s Hurricane Irene caused it to close due to additional water and mold damage. While officials are working out temporary space for government offices located in the Government Center, County Executive Edward A. Diana is suggesting it may be better to tear down the building than try to repair it. A feasibility study to determine the most economical and efficient plan for the consolidation of county departments was scheduled to be release at the end of the year but is now likely on the fast-track to recommend its demolition.
Docomomo International Journal 44: Modern and Sustainable is complete and will land in mailboxes shortly. Guest editor for this edition on sustainability is Docomomo US President, Theodore Prudon.
The Docomomo International Journal is a benefit of Docomomo US International members. If you would like to receive future editions of the Journal, become an International member today!
